or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
More Buying Choices
10 used & new from £21.05

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Verdi: Rigoletto [DVD] [2002]
 
See larger image
 

Verdi: Rigoletto [DVD] [2002]

DVD ~ Paolo Gavanelli
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
RRP: £24.99
Price: £24.49 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £0.50 (2%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

Only 2 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).

Want guaranteed delivery by Wednesday, November 11? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details
9 new from £21.05 1 used from £21.99
Learn about Lovefilm
Amazon's choice for DVD rental.
With a 14 day FREE trial. Learn more

Frequently Bought Together

Verdi: Rigoletto [DVD] [2002] + Verdi: La Traviata -- Royal Opera House [DVD] [1994] [NTSC] + Puccini: Madame Butterfly -- 1995 film version [DVD] [1997]
Total RRP: £64.97
Price For All Three: £42.25

Show availability and shipping details


What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?


Product details

  • Actors: Paolo Gavanelli, Marcelo Alvarez, Christine Schafer, Royal Opera Chorus, Royal Opera House Orchestra
  • Format: Anamorphic, Classical, PAL, Widescreen
  • Language English
  • Subtitles: English, French, Dutch, Spanish
  • Region: All Regions
  • Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Classification: Exempt
  • Studio: Opus Arte
  • DVD Release Date: 27 Mar 2002
  • Run Time: 169 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B000062Y6L
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 18,636 in DVD (See Bestsellers in DVD)

    Popular in these categories:

    #4 in  Music > Opera & Vocal > Opera > By Title > Rigoletto
    #9 in  DVD > Musicals & Classical > Opera > Composers > Verdi

Reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review

If there are doubts still lingering about the Royal Opera House's artistic renaissance after its mid-1990s doldrum years, David McVicar's gritty and sexy production of Rigoletto should blow them all away. One of the principal reasons is McVicar's decision to emphasise the tyrannical nature of the Duke (beautifully sung by Marcelo Alvarez), and the appalling social injustice that springs from a corrupt leader: his court is a place of physical and sexual abuse (graphically, but by no means gratuitously, depicted). This violence throws the dual nature of Rigoletto into relief, making his toadyism seem all the worse and his vengefulness all the more sympathetic.

The singing and acting are first rate, with Paolo Gavanelli's energetic, insect-like Rigoletto worthy even to stand against Anthony Sher's Richard III. Christine Schafer has a gorgeous voice, an intelligent sense of phrasing, and plays Gilda as a frail, morbid creature whose ultimate self-sacrifice is as much an act of neurotic despair as of love. The production is also a visual and orchestral success. Michael Vale's set is a masterpiece of economy--both the Duke's palace and Rigoletto's home are surrounded by broken objects, wire fencing and gloomy shadows--and Edward Downes draws some stunning playing from the Royal Opera Orchestra. This is undoubtedly the best Rigoletto committed to DVD thus far.

On the DVD Rigoletto comes with an entertaining 17-minute BBC biography of the composer, "Verdi Through the Looking Glass", presented by conductor Charles Hazlewood, as well as an illustrated synopsis of the opera, and a revealing 10-minute interview with the director. There are subtitles in English, French, German, Dutch and Spanish.--Warwick Thomson



DVD Description

Feature running time: 169 mins approx
Subtitles: GB, F, D, and NL, SP
Colour

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Verdi: La Traviata -- Royal Opera House [DVD] [1994] [NTSC]

Verdi: La Traviata -- Royal Opera House [DVD] [1994] [NTSC]

DVD ~ Angela Gheorghiu
4.6 out of 5 stars (5)  £12.88
Verdi: Aida -- Metropolitan Opera [DVD] [1989] [NTSC]

Verdi: Aida -- Metropolitan Opera [DVD] [1989] [NTSC]

DVD ~ Aprile Millo
5.0 out of 5 stars (1)  £9.88
Rossini: Il Barbiere Di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) - Madrid Teatro Real  [DVD] [2005]

Rossini: Il Barbiere Di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) - Madrid Teatro Real [DVD] [2005]

DVD ~ Ruggero Raimondi
4.5 out of 5 stars (6)  £12.88
Mozart: Cosi Fan Tutte [DVD] [2006]

Mozart: Cosi Fan Tutte [DVD] [2006]

DVD ~ Topi Lehtipuu
5.0 out of 5 stars (8)  £24.98
Turandot - Puccini - NTSC edition [1988] [DVD]

Turandot - Puccini - NTSC edition [1988] [DVD]

DVD ~ Eva Marton
5.0 out of 5 stars (3)  £14.98
Explore similar items

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
 

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

 

Customer Reviews

5 Reviews
5 star:
 (5)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
5.0 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding Rigoletto, 23 Mar 2003
By Edgar Sanilevich (Jerusalem Israel) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Although the nudity in1st act maybe the reason some people will buy and other people won't buy this DVD,the main reason for buying David Mc Vicar's production of Rigoletto should be the outstanding performance by the main characters.Both the acting and singing are first rate,with the only exception of Marcelo Alvarez as the Duke which disappointed me a bit.
Christine Schaefer is perfect as Gilda,
Paolo Gavanelli is a great actor and a wonderful singer in one of the best Rigoletto performances I've seen.
Both the sound and visual are of very good quality making the purchase of this DVD a good bargain.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Bravo!, 27 Jun 2003
By Plaza Marcelino (Caracas Venezuela) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
Be prepared for a startingly novel view on this old warhorse. McVicar's production for London's Royal Opera brings out unabashedly all of the libretto's sexual tensions, usually only hinted at in traditional productions, stunningly laid out and planted before the viewer's very eyes throughout the whole work which characterises the production's conception. In purely vocal terms the very accomplished cast is led by the immaculate Gilda of Christine Schäfer (yes, the same one you encountered "singing" Pierrot Lunaire exemplarily for Pierre Boulez on a DG cd, of all people), prudently set apart by McVicar as apparently the only sane person in the whole lot of characters in spite of her falling for "Gualtier Maldé". The Argentinian Marcelo Álvarez is an outstanding Duke, cynical, libidinous and unhinbited as perhaps any other recent exponent of the rôle, his physical presence no doubt visually supporting this. Gavanelli is a Rigoletto vocally in the grand Italian tradition, right in timbre in spite of some occasional rapid vibrato but exemplary in his diction, a rather deranged character in McVicar's view who walks about the stage in crotches; one quickly sees why he's rightly sought after by the world's leading opera houses for this rôle. The other important parts, those of Sparafucile and Gilda, are also very well cast, especially the latter who must be one of the horniest Gildas on record. Visually, the production subscribes to current visions on the ways of people of wealth of four or five centuries ago: exquisite fabrics enrobing people who appear not to have visited a bathtub for many months (gone seem to be the days in which period plays, operas and movies showed immaculate participants). Sir Edward Downes' conducting with swift, vigorous tempi provokes inspired playing from the ROH's Orchestra and the sound really justifies your connecting your dvd player's audio output to a quality sound system if you still haven't done so: it has to be heard to be believed. Décors & staging take full advantage of the ROH's recent refurbishing, Rigoletto's and Spafucile's respective dwellings depicting a timeless and appropriate shantiness of tin roofing and carton walling that recall today's third-world capitals' misery belts. Camerawork is very good, and curiously the BBC take great pains in making you believe this was taped live by inserting applause at the "right" places (like after arias and ensembles or at Sir Edward's entrances to the pit at the beginning of acts); only when this applause tends to sound the same one time after the other you begin to suspect and your suspicions confirm at the end --or at least so seemed in my case-- when applause de-synchonises with what's actually happening on stage when curtain calls are taking place once the work has finished, but this is only a minor quibble. And for a change, and this is a big plus, this opera dvd does bring extra material, with a plot lecture and an enlightening interview with the producer. If you are one of those who don't make totems out of the big figures of old but are rather looking for a current, up-to-date version of Rigoletto, look no further. Mind, though, that the production is far from the "good-to-introduce-the-kids-to-opera" world.
Comment Comment (1) | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Modern staging that CAN work!, 2 Aug 2007
Okay, usually I rant on about the idiocy of trying to re-stage classic operas and outdo the creative vision of the composer. This has been a particular gripe of mine regarding Wagner operas.
On the other hand I would concede that it really does depend on the opera: if the particular location is of real significance, if the location is supposedly set 'outside of space and time', then it is pretty important to stick to the orignal script, so to speak. An opera based on a particularly significant historical event or period that tries to update for a modern audience by dressing up the characters as, for example nazis, is both patronizing to the audience in its assumption that they will have no understanding of the historical period originally conveyed by the opera, and it also serves to make a nonsense of the script (libretto) for the most part. A Wagner opera, on the other hand, that turns the Gods into mafiosi gangsters breaks our ability to suspend disbelief by placing our thoughts back into the real world.
So, the point? you ask, well this Rigoletto production quite cuts with tradition and this has been cited as a fault by some. It is, however, an opera based on a less than successful play by Victor Hugo - Le Roi s'amuse. The play was cut after less than two full showings due to its unpopularity and it was only Verdi and Piave that resurrected widespread interest in the themes in the play. The opera was originally set in Paris as a means of portraying the hypocritical and malignant rule of the French leaders in power at the time but this was censored and ultimately modified via placing the characters in an effective fictional world - the state of Mantua. On this basis, we can say that the world being portrayed in this opera is not of great historical significance; it is certainly not as important as, for example, sticking to the script when adapting the English history plays of Shakespeare - modernizing Richard 2nd to transform the characters into modern day politicians being a particularly irritating example of patronizing the audience in the manner I mentioned above.
I think that it is quite reasonable, therefore, to say that modernizing Rigoletto is artistically justified, at least if it is done in the right way. Again, it makes no sense to make the characters of Rigoletto mafia hitmen since this conflicts with out ability to suspend disbelief. On the other hand if the world is set, as in this production, in a somewhat nebulous domain, then we can focus rather on the situation as opposed to the place. This is what makes this production of Rigoletto seem credible to me. Furthermore, McVicar - as he points out in the documentary that accompanies the dvd of this production - has adapted this production to make it more shocking, in essence to manifest in a watching audience a sense of shock and horror in our desensitized age that might be comparable to that of the more polite epoch that was apparent in Verdi's day. I think this is quite legitimate although it is arguable as to the extent to which such a precise effect can be re-created by focusing on so narrow a dimension as 'shock value'. Nevertheless, the sense of Rigoletto's isolation and distress seemed more acute to me that in any other production I have seen precisely because the production and staging is so gritty and raw: in a word 'modern'. As McVicar mentions, the sweet music outer layer of 'Rigoletto' is neatly juxtaposed by the sinister psychological interior of the court aptly reflecting the central theme of the opera of the reality of exterior beauty often belying or perhaps concealing inner ugliness while outward ugliness may conceal depth and splendour.
I have seen a criticism of this production that the explicit opening scene serves to unravel the inner ugliness of the state and of the Duke all at once rather than allowing it to be gradually unpealed over the course of the opera. Perhaps this is a just criticism although I would suggest that making the brutality of the state immediately apparent helps us understand Rigoletto as a being who must play evil at the court in order to be accepted and survive and that only outside the court - the next scene - do we see that ultimately he has that within which passes show, his suit of woe being alleviated only in the presence of his daughter Gilda. This is all perfectly consistent with the vision that McVicar has of the opera and I think that it comes over more clearly here than in other productions I have seen.

Some other points regarding actual performances in this production. Paolo Gavanelli is truly outstanding! As good an acting-singing performance as you can get I think. Not only does he throw everything into his acting that he really does look genuinely upset at the end of the opera, but he sings Rigoletto with a sort of refined beauty. Rigoletto is often sung overly harshly but Gavanelli maintains the harshness of Rigoletto - the exterior ugliness - while allowing for moments of beauty to break out from within when he sings of his dead wife in the 'Dei non parlar di misero' piece and in other moments with Gilda. This really does add extra dimensionality to Rigoletto and again I think is consistent with the overall vision of the work as put forth by McVicar.
Other performances are not as strong by comparison: I am not overly keen on Schaefer as Gilda whose voice lacks sweetness during Gilda's 'innocent stage' but she has the strength to be heard clearly during the important quartet 'bella figlia del amore' which actually serves all the singers well; Alvarez as the Duke is good but I had hoped for more - the power of the voice is there but he just doesn't seem to be on top form - he certainly lacks the clarity of tone that, for example, Domingo has in the Levine/New York Met dvd production.

Still, it is Gavanelli and McVicar's production that are really key to this production and make it an essential purchase. These are two artists that between them produce, I think, a really important updated interpretation of Rigoletto that resonates with meaning in the modern world.
Comment Comment (1) | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars The saddest opera
Quite simply the most moving production of Rigoletto I've seen. After an earthy start showing the true decadence of the Duke's court, and a rather nervous opening aria from... Read more
Published 5 months ago by mrs pisaroni

5.0 out of 5 stars The definitive Rigoletto
Rigoletto is one of my favourite operas, yet I hadn't found a DVD version that really got to me, until this one. Everyone I know recommends it, with good cause. Read more
Published 24 months ago by D. Robinson

Only search this product's reviews



Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums


Listmania!


Look for similar items by category


Look for similar items by subject








i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Ad

Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.